Sewing-machine take-up.



E. ERICKSONf SEWING MACHINE TAKE UP.

APPLICATION H'LED DEC. 4, 1911.

Patented May 25 1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1- YHE NORRIS PETERS C0 FHDTO-LITHO., WASHINGTON. L7v C,

E. ERICKSON.

SEWING MACHINE TAKE-UP.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 4. I911.

Patented May 25, 1915.

' 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

Inventor. Edward Erickson an" a.

THE NORRIS PETERS 430.. FHOTOJJTHO. WASHINGTON, D. c.

nnrrnn srn'rns Parana orator.

EDWARD ERICKSON, OF WEST LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS-T0 VICTOR SHOE MACHINERY COMPAN'Y, OF BOSTON, MASSA- CHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

SEWING-MACHINE TAKE-UP.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Original application filed August 18, 1911, Serial No. 644,769. Divided and. this application filed December To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD ERIGKSON,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident.

of Test Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in Sewing-Machine Take-Ups, of which the follow: ing is a specification.

' This invention relates to machines for sewing heavy material such as leather, and refers particularly to the take-up mechanism thereof.

The invention is illustrated in connection with a machine of the type known as welt sewing machines, and the object of the present invention is to provide an improved take-up, the lever of which has its operative position and throw controlled by the position of the presser foot to suit different thicknesses of work.

To these ends the invention consists in the construction and combination of parts substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

Of the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of a machine embodying the features of the present invention. Fig. 2 represents a vertical section of the take-up mechanism. Fig. 3-represents a vertical section of the entire machine.

The present invention is a division of my application 644,769, filed Aug. 18, 1911, to

. which reference may be' made for a complete description of the operation of the entire lock-stitch sewing machine, of which the take-up mechanism herein shown and described'forms a part.

The same reference characters indicate the same or similar parts in all'of the views.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated, the base 30 is formed or provided with two uprights or standards 31, 32, having bearings for a lower main or drive shaft 33 and an upp fixed shaft 38, on the latter of which are mounted certain parts which will not be described, as they form no part of the present invention.

The main shaft has a pulley 34 for a power driving belt. The main shaft 33 is provided with a spiral gear 39, indicated by dotted lines in 'Fig. 3, which meshes with a spiral gear 40 carried by a vertical shaft er counter shaft 37 and a Serial No. 663,941.

its

upper end meshing with a similar gear carried by one end of shaft 37 so that the latter is driven by the main shaft. The other end of shaft 37 has a larger spiral gear 44 meshing with two pinions 45, 46, rotatably mounted on an arm 47 of standard 31. 7

Connected to rotate with the pinions 45, 46, are crank arms 48, 49, for operating a loop spreader, but as these mechanisms form no part of the present invention, they are not herein described.

The work support comprises an arm 67 (Fig. 1) having its tip provided with an aperture 68 for the passage of the awl and needle, said aperture being elongated in the direction of the feed becausethe work is fed by the awl while the latter occupies said aperture. The work presser comprises an arm 71 having a foot 72 (Figs. 1 and 3) to bear on the work supported by arm 67, said arm 71 having a hub 73 mounted on a stud 74 supported by standard 32. An arm 75 projecting rearwardly from the hub 73 is provided with a toothed segment 76 which meshes with a pinion 77 fast on rock shaft 7 8 (see also Fig. 3). Also secured to said shaft 78 is an eccentric 79 forming the fulcrum of the take-up lever 80, having an arm 81 connected by a link 82 with a lever 83 pivoted to standard 31 and carrying a roll 84 engaging a cam groove in disk 85- fixed on shaft 33. This structure provides for varying the operative position or throw of the take-up lever, according tothe thickness of the work, because variations in the thickness of the work affect the rotative position of the eccentric 7 9, through the arm 75, segment 76, pinion 77, and shaft 78. As the eccentric is shifted, it raises or lowers the axis of oscillation of take-up lever 80, thus practically adjusting the fulcrum of said lever. The angle of arm 81 relatively to link 82 is an obtuse one. If the fulcrum of the lever be raised higher than shown in Fig. 2, the lever 80 will be lifted bodily to a new position, the angle of the arm 81 and connector 82 becoming more obtuse as a consequence of this movement. Since the amount of movement of lever 83 is always the same, due to the cam groove in disk 85, the amount Of movement imparted to the take-up lever 80 by the lever 83 under the changed conditions will be increased.

The takeup lever 80 has secured thereto an arm 800 extending upwardly therefrom beneath that portion of the thread between 5% thread locking device and the pulley When the presser foot 71 is in contact with the Work support 67 the lever 80 will be substantially in the position shown in Fig. 2 and when the presser foot is raised for the insertion of the work and returned into contact therewith, the arm 800 in its uppermost position will be immediately beneath the thread extending from the lock- 7 ing device 170174 to the pulley 176 and will not affect the position of saidthread during the throw of the lever 80.

When thicker stock is being operated upon, however, the raising of the presser foot will'shift the fulcrum 79 and bodily lift the takeup lever into a newv and higher position, the arm 800 coming into contact with the'thr'ead and pulling out a quantity thereof from the source of supply, the thread thus pulled out making an additional amount of slack proportionate to the thickness of material so that in the setting of the stitch the same amount of the shuttle thread and varying amounts of the under thread will be pulled into the material when the latter varies in thickness.

While in this higher position, whenever the cam 85 moves the lever 80 about its fulcrum 79 the arm 800 will come into contact with the thread andraise it sufficiently to draw out more thread from the source of supply, the thread locking device being inoperative at this time. This additional supply may be suflicient to take care of the increased thickness of the stock, but if this amount of thread is insufiicient the caster may draw off an additional amount from the source of supply, it being understood that the caster is spreading the loop of thread around the shuttle while the lever 80 is moving upwardly, thus taking up the slack caused by the lifting of the roll 177 and drawing more thread if necessary over the arm 800.

When a suflicient quantity of thread has been drawn off, the thread will be locked and the takeup lever 80 will then be moved downwardly to set the stitch previously formed;

It will be noted that theroll 177 in'its normal position is never beneath a point intermediate the rolls 176'178, but is al ways further removed from the fulcrum 79 than the roll 178. .Consequently, when the cam is acting on the lever 83 and operating the takeup lever 80 to draw the thread into the work the first result of the downward movement of the roll 177 would be principally to swing the loop of thread without drawing any considerable amount of thread through the work.

The continuation of the downward movement of the takeup lever will insure an accelerated pull upon that portion of the thread extending into the work.

It is obvious that the more the fulcrum 79 is moved contra-clockwise and the nearer the roll 17 7 is to the roll 178, the less drawing of the thread will occur on the initial downward movement of the lever 80. In other words, when the thicker work is being operated upon the movable fulcrum will cause the takeup lever 80 to assume a higher .normal position and when this lever 80 moves downwardly it will move a greater distance before it has a direct pull upon the thread in the work than would be the case of thread around the pulley 177 some little thread will be taken up but this will be taken from the slack caused by the deflection of the thread between the locking mechanism l70174 by the action thereon of the member 800, it being obviously easier for the takeup lever 80 to take up this slack than to draw the thread through the work against the friction exerted thereon.

When the pulley reaches a point below a point intermediate the pulleys 176 and 178 it will for the remainder of its downward movement exert a direct pull upon the thread in the work overcoming the friction thereon and thus set the stitch.

Owing to the fact thatfor thicker work additional slack is given to the thread be tween the locking device l70174: and pulley 176 over the amount of slack in thinner work, which additional slack must be taken up before the thread in the work is drawn through the work and owing to the, further fact that for thicker work the takeup lever travels downwardly a greater proportion of its throw before there is any direct pull upon the thread in the work than is the case when thinner work is being operated upon,

it is a fact that for thicker work a lesser amount of thread is taken up than is true with thinner work.

As a consequence the stitches are looked a uniform distance from the surface of the work, the changes in the action of the takeup to bring about this result-being effected by means of the changedpositions of the presser foot 71 causing the fulcrum 79 to be simultaneously changed.

The variations in the position of the presser foot 71 for various thicknesses of material will always change the fulcrum 79 sufficiently to insure the proper amount of additional slack in the thread to care for the varying thicknesses of material.

If the fulcrum 79 was fixed and its position could not be changed, the throw of the takeup lever and its normal operative position would always be the same, inasmuch as the amount of movement of the lever 83 is always the same.

This is not the case, however, in the present invention, for the position of the fulcrum is subject to change as heretofore described, the changes in position being such as will cause the throw of the takeup lever and its operative position to vary according to the thickness of the material being operated upon.

WVhen the position of the fulcrum 79 is shifted it is obvious that the takeup lever 80 will be moved bodily into a new position and owing to the pivotal connection between the arm 81 and connector 82 the angle to a horizontal of the normal position of said takeup lever will vary with every shift of said fulcrum 79. As a consequence of these changed conditions the uniform movement of the lever 83 will impart a variable movement to the takeup lever 81 and cause a greater or lesser amount of thread to be drawn into the work according to the thickness of the work.

The height of the presser .foot above the work support, varying according to the thickness of the work, controls the position of the fulcrum 79 and erative position and throw of the takeup lever 80, all as has been previously described.

The variation of throw and position of the takeup lever 80 is due in part to the fact that when the arm 75 of the presser foot lever acts through the pinion 77 to control the relative position of the eccentric 79 to vary the fulcrum of the takeup lever 80, the obtuseness of the angle between the arm 81 and link 82 is changed.

' The needle thread, on its way to the takeup from a suitable spool or other source of supply not shown, passes through a tension device consisting in part of a rock shaft 169 having an offset arm 170, said rock shaft being mounted in suitable fixed brackets, 171 172, while said arm 170 is provided with two hook-shaped projections or pins 17 3. Mounted at one end in the bracket 172, and at the other end in the fixed portion of the frame and parallel with the rock shaft 169 is a bar 17 4 which is preferably cylindrical in form as illustrated. Said bar is fixed,

consequently the op-.

being supported at one end in bracket 17 2 and at the other end in a portion of the frame, and the bracket 171 is fixedly supported by said bar. A spring 175 (see dotted lines Fig. 1) is coiled about the rock shaft 169 and is secured thereto at one end and at the other end engages the bar 174, said spring serving to press the arm 170 against the bar 174. Preferably the portion of the arm 170 which bears against the thread is flattened as shown in Fig. 2. The needle thread passes from the source of su ply between the arm 170 and the bar 17 preferably passing once around the arm 170 and between the two hook pins 17 3, which latter serve to prevent the thread from slipping off or out of position. The thread next passes under the arm 17 1, around a pulley 176, under a roll 177 carried by the take-up lever and then over pulley 178, so that the take-up, when operating as hereinbefore described, forms a bight or loop of thread between the two pulleys 176, 178. The thread then passes to the guiding eye 181 in the lever 182, which, as explained in my application 644,769, is actuated to deliver the thread to the hook of the needle.

The spring 175 acts with sufficient pressure to cause the tension arm 17 0 to firmly grip the thread to prevent it from being pulled from the source of supply when the take-up operates and the stitch is being tightened. The rock-shaft 169 has secured thereto an arm 179, theend of which projects into thepath of movement of a beveled pin 180, projecting from the vertical shaft 41 (see Figs/1 and 3). Said shaft rotates in the direction of the arrow in Fig. l and when the beveled pin 180 passes the end of arm 179, it acts on the latter to rock the shaft 169 in a direction to release the pressure of the tension arm 170, this occurring when the caster is lengthening the loop to carry it over the top of'the shuttle.

When the thread. is being drawn from the source of supply the thread lock is open and the thread may be freely drawn therethrough to form the stitch. As soon as the stitch has been formed the thread will be locked before the takeup device starts on its downward movement to set the stitch just formed.

It is believed that the operation and many advantages of this invention will be fully apparent from the foregoing description.

Having thus claim:

1. Ina sewing machine, the combination with the stitch-forming mechanism thereof, of a work support, and a presser for holding the work on said support, said presser comprising a pivoted arm having a toothed segment connected to said arm, an eccentric, a pinion connected with said eccentric and described my invention, I

meshing with said'toothed segment, a movable take-up lever mounted on said eccentric, and means coacting with said lever whereby the amount of thread taken up in the work during the setting of the stitch is varied according to the thickness of the work between the presser and work support.

2. A sewing machine having a presser foot, an eccentric, connections whereby said eccentric is rotatively adjusted according to the position of the presser foot, stitch-forming mechanism including a take-up lever mounted on said eccentric, an actuating lever, a link. connecting the two levers, and means coacting with the takeup lever whereby the amount of thread taken up in the work during the setting of the stitch is varied according to the thickness of the work between the presser and work support.

3. In a sewing machine, the combination with the stitch-forming mechanism thereof, of a work support, a presserfor holding the work on said support, an eccentric, connections whereby said eccentric is rotatably adjusted according to the position of the 'presser, a movable take-up lever mounted on said eccentric, and means coacting with said lever whereby the amount of thread taken up in the work during the setting of the stitch is varied according to the thickness of the work between the presser and the work support.

4. In a sewing machine, a takeup mechanism comprising a pivoted lever having a roller at the free end thereof; two stationary rolls coacting with said roller; a thread lock, and an arm secured to said lever and ada ted to be moved therewith into the path of the thread between one of said stationary rolls andsaid thread lock. 7 a

5. In a sewing machine, a takeup mechanism comprising. a pivoted lever having a roller at the free end thereof; two stationary rolls coacting with said roller; an eccentrically mounted fulcrum for said lever; means for shifting said fulcrum to vary the position of said lever; a thread lock, and an arm secured to said lever and adapted to be moved therewith into the path of the thread between one of said stationary rolls and said thread lock.

6. In a sewing machine, a takeup mechanism comprising a pivoted lever having a roller at the free end thereof; two stationary rolls coacting with said roller; an eccentrically mounted fulcrum for said lever; camcontrolled means for shifting said fulcrum to vary the position of said lever; a thread lock, and an arm secured to said lever and adapted to be moved therewith into the path Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the of the thread between one of said stationary rolls and said thread lock.

7. In a sewing machine, a takeup mechanism'comprising a pivoted lever having a roller at the free end thereof; two stationary rolls coacting with said roller; an eccentrically mounted fulcrum for said lever, means for shifting said fulcrum to vary the position of said lever; a cam-controlled lever, an arm on said takeup lever, a link between said arm and cam-controlled lever, a thread lock, and an arm secured to said lever and adapted to be moved therewith into the path of the thread between one of said stationary rolls and said thread lock. 7

8. In a sewing machine, a takeup mechanism comprising a pivoted lever having a roller at the free end thereof; two stationary rolls coacting with said roller; a thread lock, an eccentrically mounted fulcrum for said lever, cam mechanism for moving said takeup lever about said fulcrum, means controlled by the movement of the presser foot for shifting said fulcrum to vary the position of said lever, and an arm secured to said lever and adapted to be moved there with into the path of the thread between one of said stationary rolls and said thread lock.

9. In a sewing nism comprising a takeup lever provided with a thread engaging member at its free end, a thread lock, two stationary thread engaging members positionedon opposite sides of said movable member, and means coacting with said takeup lever adapted during its upward movement to produce varying machine, a takeup mechaamounts of slack in the thread between one a stationary member and the thread lock whereby the amount of thread taken up in the work during the downward movement of the takeup lever will vary with the varying thicknesses of rhe'work. Y

10. In a sewing machine, a takeup mechanism comprising a takeup lever, a fulcrum EDWARD ERICKSON.

Witnesses:

A. W; HARRISON, J. M. MURPHY.

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

